Day 87 – Stay in Swatara – The trek

The day started earlier and I was on the road by 7am. Trying to beat some of the heat today, as well as make sure I’m packed before some predicted rain arrives.

Cruise

Walking this morning was pretty easy, as almost the first 10 miles were flat or downhill, with minimal rocks, at least by Pennsylvania standards. Shooter and I were cruising for most of the first two hours at 3 mph. Around 8:30 am the rain finally came. At first a light drizzle, which eventually turned into a constant rain. The forest canopy kept us relatively sheltered at first, but I eventually became saturated enough for the rain to come anyway. Perhaps revitalized by the rain, the rhododendron flowers were at their peak aroma, overcoming the smell of damp earth. About 8 miles later, Shooter and I took our first break of the day at the Rausch Gap shelter. There we took a load off our shoulders and filled up with water while we ate some snacks. There was a laminated piece of paper in the shelter, but I ignored it at first, but eventually, after being there for a few minutes, I read it and discovered that it was a warning about a giant rattlesnake living under the shelter… I quickly jumped down and then took a few moments to thoroughly investigate the area around me to confirm that there were no rattlesnakes near me or that could sneak up on me. After only planning to be there for 30 minutes, we ended up staying almost an hour before moving on. Somehow canceling out the brisk walks we did before. One of the things we talked about was that throughout the morning we heard a loud boom in the distance, like thunder or fireworks. I’m not sure what it was, but when I looked at the map again, I noticed that there was a military base not far south of us, which answered our questions about what it was and where it came from.

Leaving the shelter, we continued along the trail and decided not to take the detour and instead go through the swamp where the actual trail passes, which had however been flooded by beaver activity. The trail admittedly went through some pretty swampy terrain for a few hundred yards, but between walking on swamp boards and logs, we were able to keep our feet dry. By this time the rain had stopped and we were faced with the consequences of having a forest canopy, water dripping from the trees for the next hour or so. We then climbed a climb of about 500 feet, really the only notable climb of the morning and, frankly, it was pretty gradual. Shortly after finishing that climb I headed out into an area of ​​open grassland until I crossed a road and headed back into the woods. A couple more miles later I arrived at Stay-AT-Swatara, a hostel where we were planning to resupply.

Relaxing

I reached Swatara around 1 pm. Upon arrival, I first took off my wet, sweaty clothes and put on a dry outfit. About this time Eric, the owner, arrived and opened the resupply shack. There I picked up some things to get to Hamburg for two more days and to have lunch. For lunch, I got a fresh roast beef sub sandwich, a bag of chips, a Coke, and an Amish-made whoopie pie, all for $12.50! While we were eating and charging some of our devices, it started pouring rain. Looking at the radar, it was going to rain heavily for the next hour with a short break and then more rain until about 6pm. Since our objective for the day, the William Penn Shelter, was only 7 miles away, we decided to try to wait out the rain and leave when it was over. During this time we continued having snacks and chatting with other local hikers.

I also managed to delete a few blog posts, which gave me a much-needed break. It’s getting harder and harder to keep up with the daily blogs, but I intend to finish what I started!

A little before 6:00 p.m. we set out on the road again. It was still quite hot and muggy and unfortunately my clothes had not dried over the course of the afternoon. The hike began by crossing a bridge, before beginning a 1,000-foot climb over 1.25 miles. Which meant that the sweat was flowing quickly and abundantly! After a steep climb, we level out on a ridge. This, from what I’ve heard, is the beginning of Rocksylvania. After a couple of miles on the ridge, we called early because it was 8 pm and we wanted to make sure we set up our tents before the rain started again.

Statistics for day 87:

18.6 miles

2,352′ ascent, 2,618′ descent

From store site to stealth site

33 DSLC…

Stove use times: 14

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